Many system designs include power conversion circuitry to develop a required operating voltage. One such power conversion circuit is known as a charge pump. A charge pump is a device for creating increases in supply voltage or for inverting a supply voltage to generate a split supply. Many of these devices are related to applications using non-volatile memory circuits, which require a high voltage for programming. In a conventional charge pump power conversion circuit, the load device connects so that one terminal thereof is common to one of the supply terminals, typically the ground reference. U.S. Letters Pat. No. 4,807,104 discloses a power conversion circuit which is both a voltage multiplying and inverting charge pump. However, the output of the power conversion circuit remains referenced to the ground node.
In certain system implementations, it may be advantageous to power the system using a floating power transfer device. By floating the power transfer device, if a terminal in the system were to short, then the system may still be able to continue to operate. For example, in an automobile bus network, the signaling portion of the system on the bus could be floating relative to any other reference, such as ground or Vdd. This would provide enhanced fault tolerance by allowing communications to still occur notwithstanding a short at a terminal thereof.